Article September 22, 1973 Issue

The Living Prayer of Affirmation

ROBERT L. GATES

It was a crisp winter evening, and snow fell lightly on our two children as they slipped and slid on a neighborhood pond. They were preschoolers, still too young for skating, but they delighted themselves in running and falling and sliding, mostly on their knees.

I had cautioned them about getting in the way of the older boys playing hockey; and I had asked them to stay together and not roam too far. It worked for a while, but soon they were going their separate ways. Just as I was deciding it was time to corral them for the trip home to bed, I spotted our little girl running toward a large hole in the ice. I'd warned the children about this spot ringed with shoveled snow. But now she was bearing down on this black hole at top four-year-old speed. I sprang toward her, yelling for her to stop. But she didn't. She ran directly into the hole and disappeared. I remember shouting as I ran, "God is your Life!" Without consciously thinking about what to do or how to do it. I dove forward, sprawled on the ice at the hole's edge, and reached down into the utter blackness. My hand found the hood of her snowsuit and I pulled her out. Immediately I pointed at our younger child and commanded, "Get me that boy!" A teen-ager responded instantly, raced to our son, grabbed him up, and within less than a minute I was running home with a child under each arm.

Our daughter was crying hysterically, but I was already rejoicing and declaring aloud, "You are perfectly all right. God is your Life."

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